Material transport vehicle unloading conveyor systems are commonly used whenever there is a need to transport and store materials at a variety of locations. For example, the agricultural and aggregate industries use unloading conveyor systems to transport and unload various materials.
The present invention provides an arrangement which is particularly but not exclusively designed for unloading sand from highway trucks for movement to a storage silo for use in fracking rather than from agricultural vehicles. The arrangement is designed specifically for movement along highways at highway speeds rather than over agricultural land.
A number of prior art arrangements have been provided, which are primarily designed for agricultural use, as set out for example in the following documents:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,566 (Stewart) issued Oct. 12, 1999 and assigned to Sudenga shows a drive over arrangement which uses a chain and paddles as the conveyor and provides a removal wheel system at one end and a pivotal hitch at the other. This is for field use and is not designed for highway transport.
USA 2003/0170103 (Mast) published Sep. 11, 2003 shows a drive over arrangement which uses grain auger where there is includes hydraulic front and rear lifts arrangements for transport. Again this is for field use and is not designed for highway transport.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,090,066 (Kirsch) issued Aug. 15, 2006 and assigned to Bourgault shows a drive over arrangement which uses an auger as the conveyor and provides a retractable wheel system at one end and a pivotal hitch at the other. This is again for field use and is not designed for highway transport.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,424,943 (Gausman) issued Sep. 16, 2008 and assigned to Superior Industries shows a drive over arrangement which uses a belt as the conveyor and provides a pair of fold down ramp sides which are designed to work with an earthen ramp laid on the ground. Also the ramp sides extend across the full width of the unloading vehicle and include side walls to catch material not entering the grate and are arranged to fold up to dump material excess into the grate if the material escapes to either side. This again is for field use and is not designed for highway transport.